Cryptographic key management is a known field.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,105,131 describes a secure server for a distributed information system, with “personal volts”.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,317,829 describes a public key cryptography based system which stores decryption private key history data in a directory accessible by roaming users. A system stores, per user, security data such as decryption private key history data which serves as master copy data. A public repository stores remotely accessible per user decryption private key history data stored in the security management server. A computing device communicates with the public repository unit to obtain the decryption private key history data and decrypts encrypted data with portable security.
A White Paper posted on Internet by cloudKey +1Touch Security v1.01: Jul. 25, 2011 presents the following in connection with thieves which “can survey the herd of companies storing millions of credit card numbers”: “if Sony, et al, stopped storing your credit card information in the cloud, the problem would be solved. It really is that simple. But, from Sony, et al's, perspective, how will they make it easier for you to pay for stuff? The financial fall-out of repeated re-entry of credit card information would be catastrophic from a sales perspective. People would stop buying online. Amazon's 1Click patent and their sole licensee Apple have shown the dramatic increase in online sales conversion when the buy decision is reduced to a single click . . . cloudKey's “distributed key” topology turns the numbers game against the thieves by keeping the data they seek (private credit card information) on each user's device, not in an online central database “bank”. The data is stored in an extremely secure encrypted form (256 bit Triple DES), but the keys to the encrypted data are stored in a secured online database. So to steal your private data, the thief would have to physically steal your phone, then guess your password, and even if they did all that, they wouldn't get your credit card data, just the ability to make some purchases that get sent to your house. Definitely not worth their effort.
. . . If you have a gym locker you wouldn't write your combination numbers on the locker door right? Keeping a decryption key on the same device you have sensitive information is tantamount to the same thing . . . . Keeping the encryption keys in the cloud is the right solution here. It forces a would-be thief to break into two places in order to steal any one piece of information—both the device AND the cloud.”
The disclosures of all publications and patent documents mentioned in the specification, and of the publications and patent documents cited therein directly or indirectly, are hereby incorporated by reference.